


You Did Good Firecracker

by RangerLcat



Category: RWBY
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sickfic, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-01-31 01:26:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21437911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RangerLcat/pseuds/RangerLcat
Summary: The reason Qrow decides to work for Signal.And because Qrow and Yang need more interaction.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Taiyang Xiao Long
Comments: 2
Kudos: 68





	You Did Good Firecracker

This mission had ended a few days sooner than had been expected. Not that Qrow was complaining. It was an easy reconnaissance mission, that for once hadn’t escalated into some sort of brawl. In fact absolutely nothing had happened and the only thing to report had been, there was nothing to report. 

So here he was, walking up the path to the Xiao Long house, early. Excited to surprise them. 

He paused and took a few steps back. Something was off. It took him a second to realize that it was the mailbox, still full of mail. Tai always got the mail at lunch time. Qrow wasted no more time on a leisurely stroll to the door. His knocking is a little more frantic than it needed to be, but so many things were just ever so slightly out of place and it set off alarms in his brain. It took a moment to long for the door to open, so he tried to open it. Gods, the door wasn’t even locked. 

Fearing the worst, he threw it open. Yang and Ruby were in the living room, looking at him. Obviously shocked, but they were unharmed. Yang was closest so she jumped at him first.

“Uncle Qrow!” Yang threw her arms around his waist. Ruby was a second behind to join in the waist clinging. “We’re so glad you’re here.” Yang chokes out. Both of the girls have tears silently rolling down their faces. 

“Woah, woah what’s wrong?” He rests a hand on each of their heads. Looking around for some sort of danger. Nothing seemed out of place, just a little messy.

“It’s Dad. He’s sick and we don’t know what to do.” Yang sobs. 

“He’s been in bed since yesterday, he only gets up to throw up.” Ruby elaborates, also crying.

“Hey, hey, its ok. Let me see him.” Qrow tries to console. The girls detach and each take a hand to pull. Qrow can barely kick the door closed behind them before they pull him up the stairs to Taiyang’s bedroom.

Qrow wasn’t sure what he was expecting. What he found was Tai cocooned is his covers, and a small collection of cups and plates holding juice and toast respectively. 

“I’ve brought him toast and juice like he does when I’m sick, but he’s not getting better.” Yang explains. 

“Ok, can you two take some of these downstairs,” Qrow picked up one of the plates and handed it to Yang, “then bring me a glass of water.” They nodded and went to work, so Qrow sat on the edge of the bed to check on Tai. 

A hand brushing back Tai’s hair revealed hot skin and hair that was stiff with dried sweat. Qrow was worried about the temperature, even though Tai was normally warm—and it made for great hugs—this was definitely fever territory.

Yang has come back with the requested water, so Qrow goes about waking his teammate. 

“Rise and shine Tai.” Qrow shakes his shoulder. Tai stirs and opens his eyes. The haze over the blue and lack of response as Qrow sits him up makes Qrow guess he’s not entirely awake. Qrow has to hold Taiyang up and coax the water down his throat. Half the glass is all the risk he’s willing to take. Tai seems to have fallen asleep again and Qrow doesn’t want him to choke. He tucks Tai back under the blankets.

“Is he gonna be ok?” Yang whispers. 

“He should be just fine. Do you know where your dad keeps the medicine.” 

“In his bathroom.”

“Thanks, you keep an eye on him while I get it.” Yang nods and sits in the chair she must have dragged in. 

The bathroom was where Tai kept the many medicine bottles. The problem was, it was all for Ruby and Yang. The only ‘adult’ medication was a bottle of painkillers that Qrow was sure Tai kept around for after particularly rough missions. Qrow recognized them from after that one mission where he came back feeling like one huge bruise. 

“Looks like I need to run to the store,” he tells Yang. She looks frightened. “I’m gonna take your dad’s scroll, call me if something happens ok. It should only take me an hou—“ he had to go into town. “Less than two hours. Can you hold down the fort until then?” Yang nods. “You got this, Firecracker,” he tells her, swiping Tai’s scroll from where it was charging on his nightstand.

He found Ruby sitting in the living room, pretending to watch tv.

“Is Dad gonna be ok?”

“Yeah, he is. I just need to run into town real quick and get him some medicine. Do you know where the keys for the car are?” 

“On the hook in the kitchen.” She trails after him as he goes and finds them exactly where she had said. 

Since he was there, he also checked over the kitchen for essentials. It left him silently cursing Tai’s ambition to make most things from scratch. Which Qrow didn’t have the time for. 

“Have you two been eating?” Qrow asks.

“We had leftovers for dinner last night, Yang made eggs for breakfast and we had sandwiches for lunch.” Ruby told him. That, and the surplus of toast, explained the lack of bread. 

“Has Yang been in charge while your dad’s been sick?” 

“She’s been making me stay away so I won’t get sick. I just want to help.” 

“I know you do. Yang’s just trying to be a good sister.” He gets an idea. “How about you help by doing the dishes for me?”

“You are bad at dishes.” Ruby agreed. He always, always, dropped things while trying to help with dishes. On good days it was just silverware. 

“Alright, I’ll be right back.”

—  
He was trying to be quick, he really was. There was just no order to the list in his brain so he ended up walking down some aisles twice to get everything. Then there was the standing and reading all the medicine labels to figure out which he needed. These were way more complicated than just pain killers. He ended up with two different bottles in his basket as he finally headed for checkout. Which was down to one person, as the rest had been called away to clean up after a shelf had collapsed. 

So an hour and forty minutes later, he was finally almost back. It was just up this road and turn right. Tai’s scroll lit up and started ringing, a picture of the house on the screen.

“Hello.” Qrow answers, carefully balancing the scroll so he could still drive.

“Dad threw up again.” Yang was definitely holding back tears.

“I’m pulling up the driveway. Be there soon.” 

“Ok. *sniff.” 

“I’m gonna need you to open the door for me ok?”

“Ok.”

“I’ll see you in a second.”

“Ok.” 

He hangs up and lets the scroll flop into his lap. He felt bad having to hang up, but he could see the house and he had to park and grab the groceries. 

Yang opened the door before he got to it, so he carried everything to the table. Ruby was putting dishes in the drying rack, using a stool to reach the sink. He leaves the bag on the table and takes the medicine out. 

“Good job, can you two put the groceries while I check on your dad.” Nod. “Thank you.” He takes the stairs two at a time as he rushes to check on Tai.

Tai was still in the bathroom, panting until he had to lean forward to retch. Qrow winced. It sounded horrible and the fact that nothing was coming up meant it had to hurt. No wonder Yang was so freaked out. Qrow kneels down behind Tai so that when the other was done trying to throw up he could guide him to relax against Qrow’s chest.

“Hey, Dragon.” 

“Qrow?” Gods, he sounded terrible. And judging from the wince it hurt for him to talk. 

“Who else?” Qrow strokes the hair from Taiyang’s forehead. Fever was still present. “You’re not looking so great, let’s get you back to bed. I got some medicine for you.” 

Tai frantically shakes his head. Qrow can feel the muscles contract sharply as Tai coughs and gags. Again the sounds were terrible and nothing came up. 

“I’ve got ya.” Qrow comforts, wrapping his arms around Tai, massaging the muscles that were clenching. Just like a Tai would do when Qrow was the one spilling his guts into the toilet. It seemed to work, as he went limp. 

“Just end me now…” Tai groaned. 

“And how would I explain that to Ruby and Yang?” 

“The girls! I need to—“ Tai’s frantic attempt at standing is stopped by Qrow’s arms.

“They’re fine, I’ve got it covered.” Tai snorted. “Fine, Yang has Ruby covered.” 

“That I believe.” 

“Now will you let me take care of you?” Qrow helps Tai stand and shuffle back to bed. Tai insists on reading the bottles Qrow had bought. Opting to start with the anti nausea one first, and leave the one for fever till later. Qrow did insist on Tai drinking the rest of the glass of water from earlier. 

“I’ll check on you in a bit. Don’t throw up the medicine. Got it?” 

“Got it.” Tai had already snuggled back into his bed. Qrow gave Tai’s hair a final stroke before going back downstairs.

—  
Keeping the girls distracted was a harder challenge. Both of them were really worried. It took Qrow promising that with the medicine and the soup he was making, their Dad would be fine. 

“Soup has magical healing powers,” he insisted.

“Even if it comes from a can?” Yang asks, holding it up.

“Well, probably not as good as homemade, but it’ll get the job done,” he stirs it to keep it from burning. If he lost focus it would. His semblance didn’t make for easy cooking, which is why the dishes from dinner were covered in the remnants of boxed Mac and cheese. “Now who wants to get a tray for me?”

“I got it!” Ruby ducks into one of the cupboards.

“Yang can you put a glass of water on it for me?”

“On it.”

Qrow is extra careful balancing the tray up the stairs, last thing he needs is his semblance dumping hot soup on himself. Of course Tai is a little sceptical as the tray is placed in his lap. Qrow had to argue that the medicine and water had stayed down, so he had to at least try. Taiyang is thankfully less stubborn as a patient than Qrow is. And Qrow promises himself to try and give Tai a break next time the situation is reversed. 

After the soup is gone and the next dose of meds were taken, Tai rolls over to go back to sleep. This was probably the most rest Tai had gotten in months. Being a single parent had to be rough. Qrow sighs and runs his fingers through Taiyang’s hair. Coaxing him into a deeper sleep. 

—  
Qrow carries the tray of dishes back down into the kitchen. Yang is at the sink washing dishes this time. 

“Where’s Ruby?”

“I put her to bed.” Qrow glanced at the clock. It was later than he thought.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed too?”

“I’m almost done,” she insisted.

“The dishes can wait.”

“No they can’t!” Yang gives him an angry glare, the effect somewhat lost with the tears threatening to leave the corners of her eyes. “Dad never leaves dishes in the sink.”

“Come on Yang, you’re tired. It’s time for bed.”

“No! I’m fine I can do it.”

“Yang, you’ve been doing ‘it’ all day. You-“

“But I didn’t! You had to come in and fix everything!” she shouts. Qrow doesn’t know how to respond to that. Yang sniffles a few times before angrily wiping the tears away. “I—I thought I could do—do it. But it was so-so hard. I—I—I didn’t know what to do. Dad was so sick and—and I didn’t want Ruby to panic—“ 

Qrow pulls Yang in for the tightest hug he can muster. Letting all the fear and worry she was feeling melt. She hugs him back just as hard.

“Yang, you’re twelve. I don’t expect you to know how to handle everything. You took really good care of Ruby. I can’t ask for more than that.” Qrow pets the hair she refuses to cut.“You did good Firecracker. I’m so proud of you.” He let Yang sob and sniffle, just holding her as the weight of the past day or so finally left her shoulders. Once calmed down he carried her to her bed, tucking her in so she could rest.

He quietly slips out and closes the door. He sighs and lets his forehead rest on the door.

“Qrow?” Taiyang is using the door frame of his own door to stay standing. “I heard crying, is everything ok?”

“Your daughter is stronger than I am.” Qrow sighs.

“Yeah. Kinda wish they didn’t have to be.” Tai shivers.

“Come on, it’s time to go back to bed.” 

Tai is still wobbly when he walks, but he’s leaning less on Qrow than he did earlier. Again, Qrow tucks him in and then just sits on the edge of the bed, stroking Tai’s hair. This time he’s more lost in thought.

“What’s up?” Tai asks.

“I was thinking… maybe… maybe… I would stick around for a little bit. Apply for that job at Signal like you keep suggesting.” 

“I’d like that.”

“Maybe you could put in a good word.”

“I can put in a lot of words, I don’t know how many of them would be good.”


End file.
